However, those who have accumulated a wealth of 30-pin cables and accessories are going to have to fork over the big bucks to allow them to work with Apple's new Lightning connector. Apple is listing the Lightning to 30-pin adapter for $29 on its online store. Considering that you would need one adapter for each cable/accessory, things could get pricey pretty quickly.

New Lightning 8-pin USB cables aren't much cheaper at $19 each.

The best bet for those looking to make the switch is to wait for the cheap Chinese knock-offs to start flooding eBay (it's easy to find current 30-pin USB cables for $1 to $3 each).

The positive news is that once all of Apple's mobile devices are equipped with the new Lightning dock, you won't have to worry about the boys from Cupertino switching things up again anytime soon. “This is the new connector for many years to come,” said Apple Senior VP Phil Schiller in an interview with AllThingsD.

I love technological advancement and change, which is why I visit tech sites. However this new "all digital" connector is not technological advancement. It doesn't even fall into the category of 'change for the sake of change'. Instead it's a frivolous and unnecessary change that was clearly made solely so that Apple can sell ridiculously overpriced adapter cables to people who already have iDevice accessories and want to continue using them. That's what I find agitating.

As for it "not being possible" to keep the previous form-factor, that is complete nonsense. Just because some high-level corporate figurehead says something doesn't make it true. You can review the evidence yourself; here's a side-by-side comparison of the iPhone 5 and the iPhone 4S:

The iPhone 5 is not that much thinner, and it is clearly still more than thick enough to support the old-style connector. In fact, the new connector does not appear to be much thinner at all. It is narrower, certainly, but the thickness is almost unchanged.

quote: The iPhone 5 is not that much thinner, and it is clearly still more than thick enough to support the old-style connector. In fact, the new connector does not appear to be much thinner at all. It is narrower, certainly, but the thickness is almost unchanged.

What about the next iPhone?, Or the current iPod Touch. Or the current iPod Nano. Can't squeeze the old connector into those can you? Do you really think that Apple, given the scale of it's revenues and profits, is primarily motivated by the profit it can make on a 30 bucks cable accessory? Get a grip dude. Stop whining about technical change. Embrace the new :)

Given that probably roughly half of users will buy at least one of these adapters? Yes. $30 * 5 million sales = $150 million in revenue. That's figuring 10 million sold which might happen in just the first few weeks alone.

quote: Given that probably roughly half of users will buy at least one of these adapters? Yes. $30 * 5 million sales = $150 million in revenue. That's figuring 10 million sold which might happen in just the first few weeks alone.

Apple earns $150 million revenue every six hours. For Apple it's peanuts. I repeat only a fool would think the primary reason for making this change was to make a few extra bucks. Hate Apple by all means but try not to let it undermine your intelligence or judgement, especially in public.

quote: Yup they make this level of income by trying to force customers to stay within the apple universe from multimedia to accessories, etc. Personally I prefer choice.

Apple doesn't force it's customers to do anything, they flock to Apple with huge enthusiasm because they love Apple's products. Hard for you to swallow I know but still true. Apple's products may not be the right ones for you but to try to pretend that they are not genuinely hugely popular is just being deliberately obtuse.

They may not have made the change to make a few extra bucks but they probably did change it to another proprietary connector instead of a standardized one to make a few extra bucks. The world already had a sufficient variety of connectors to choose from.

From a mechanical strength and current carrying perspective I don't like it when connectors are shrunk. For example I find use of microUSB ridiculous when it only saves 2mm over miniUSB.

On the other hand while the phone itself isn't much thinner, the connector obviously is leaving room for something else above or below it, as well as being narrower which leaves more space for other electronics, heatsinking, or even a good ole air gap for better ventilation so it heats up less than it otherwise would. However, I wrote it isn't much thinner but what if the 18% shrink from 9.3mm to 7.6mm was directly attributable to the connector thickness reduction?

Given apple's desire to make this as thin and light as possible given the specs it has, I'm sure they took pains to make everything as small as they can do so (hopefully) without sacrificing reliability. The old connector seemed ridiculous anyway but what I'd have liked to see instead is a miniUSB3 connector. Not that it really matters to me, I don't own an iPhone and have no plans to in the future but I don't like the trend of using proprietary connectors at all. The whole point of standards was to relieve us of this issue.